Resurrection Lapbook

I just found this Resurrection lapbook this morning and I love it!  They have a little video showing each component of the lapbook and all the links to print everything out.  I just took what I liked and left what I didn't think "Rupert" would be interested in.  I'm also adding a couple more Bible verses to copy:

"He is not here; he has risen just as he said." ~Matthew 28:6
and
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:13

I'm currently getting it all set up for "Rupert" so he can just do the fun little activities and coloring and not have to worry about cutting everything out.

It's funny how the learning doesn't stop just because we're on spring break.  It just has a different flavor.  :-)

Photos of our lapbook:

1st Grade: Week 28 Highlights

Bible: We've really been enjoying the daily devotions at kids4truth.com They have been such a blessing for us. Check them out! "Rupert" has also been reading his children's Bible for phonics this week.

Grammar: We were introduced to three more sentence types this week- the command, the question and the exclamation. "Rupert" practiced writing a sample of each of the four types of sentences.

Science: This week we talked about our sense of touch. We also did a fun little activity where I put miscellaneous items into a paper bag, and "Rupert" had to put his hand in the bag, and determine what was in there by using his sense of touch. We also talked about how sensitive our fingers are to touch, and did the activity again, but this time wearing a mitten on his hand.

Some of the things in our touch bag:

History: We read about the Greeks (Sparta and Athens) coming together to fight off the Persians, the origin of the Marathon run, and finally, the Peloponnesian war. We also played a Peloponnesian war board game that was in our Story of the World Vol.1 Activity Book.

Math: We reviewed our skip counting songs and double and triple digit addition with carrying. After doing a great job on that, "Rupert" asked for a challenge: a 10-digit problem! My little math master did his challenge problem perfectly! We called it our "monster problem", so when he was done solving it, he drew in a monster face around it. :-)

Kung fu: "Rupert" learned more of his double stick form this week. I finished learning it, and I'm here to say, it is tough! Keeping track of what your body is doing is tricky enough sometimes, then adding a stick in each hand and trying to make those do what you want them to...I don't know how any kid would be coordinated enough to get it down. But they do...and he is.

Social Opportunities: We took it easy this week and just had kung fu class, a baking/crafting playdate for St. Patrick's Day, and PE class.

Our St. Patrick's Day craft will grow parsley "hair"

Our cupcakes had rainbow colors inside!

1st Grade: Week 23 Highlights

Craft: We made valentines this week for "Rupert's friends. This craft was based on an idea we saw in Clubhouse Jr. magazine.

Phonics: I think we're having a reading growth spurt. "Rupert" is able to read a lot more than before, and this gives him the confidence to try sounding out new, harder words. It's a great cycle to be on! As we were in line at the post office this week, he grabbed a pamphlet and started reading what he could as we waited. The word "international" still trips him up, but he's got "shipping" down pat! LOL!

Grammar: "Rupert" began learning another poem this week. This will make 5 in all.

Science: This week marks the beginning of our human body study. We started by learning about bones. I am teaching "Rupert" the names of some of the major bones, about 20 in all. I am planning to do either a big lapbook for our human body study, or a collection of smaller ones. I'm not sure yet which.

This week we did a few projects to go along with our study: We made a model of a backbone complete with discs in between the bones and a spinal cord running up the center.

Here, "Rupert" is showing how the many bones work together to allow us to bend.

Our discussion went into how the nerves work and "Rupert" modified his model to show that the nerves in the arms and legs (the threads coming off the backbone model) are connected to the spinal cord, which is connected to the brain (the green spool on the right). It was amazing to listen to him explain to me how the nervous system works. He picked up on the concept very quickly.

We also learned that bones are made up of minerals. When the minerals are removed, the bone is no longer hard, but becomes rubbery. The calcium in this chicken bone was removed by soaking it in vinegar for a few days.

We did a measurement project to show that we "shrink" during the day and actually are shorter at night than we are in the morning because of the pressure that is on our bodies when we are in an upright position. It was pretty funny because we had measured "Rupert" in the morning, then came back to measure again at night and he was so excited to see how much he had grown over the course of the day. He was very surprised to find that he was actually about 1/2 inch shorter than he had been in the morning.

History: This week we've been reading about the early Greeks. "Rupert" made this Mycenaean shield and we have plans in the works for making a Mycenaean helmet as well.

Kung Fu: We are learning our 4th stick form. It uses two sticks and takes a lot more concentration to learn than the single stick forms we have previously learned. "Rupert's" focus is getting better, although he does still have a day here and there where he is totally spacey.

Social Opportunities: Besides all the real world social experience of being out and about, talking to all kinds of people of different ages and backgrounds, asking questions, and just generally experiencing the community around us, we had 2 playdates this week, art day, kung fu, story time, and play practice.

Handprint Angel Craft

I found this cute angel craft, and "Rupert" was excited to give it a try. I told him how to do it, and he went up and made it all by himself. Fun and easy to do, and I love the Christmas verse on the front.

Already in the Christmas Spirit!

We recently bought the fixins for a Christmas wreath for our front door. "Rupert" was SO excited for the day after Thanksgiving (I made him wait...one holiday at a time, now.) to make his wreath! He could hardly stand it! So, first thing on Friday we got crafty and made this:

Thanksgiving is...

Well, from the looks of it, to me, Thanksgiving is baked treats. Here's what I baked today:

Pumpkin pies, brownies and cranberry bread. I can't wait till tomorrow!

Every year we put up this "Thankful Tree" and each day "Rupert" gets to write what he is thankful for on a leaf that we then attach to the tree. This year he was thankful for Grandma & Grandpa, Christmas, Wall-E, the piano, angels, Uncle Erik, Mom, Kiki (the cat), himself, Daddy, God, our house, planets, and Kiki again. Can you tell he REALLY likes the cat?

Oh! And we did a little turkey craft too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

Thanksgiving Activity

I got this idea from the HowStuffWorks website. What a great idea! We've been doing a "Thankful Tree" for the past couple of years (I'll be posting about this year's tree in a few days), but I think we'll do this message box next year, so the whole family can get in on the thankfulness fun!

Thankful Message Box

Help the family get into the Thanksgiving spirit with this message box.

What You'll Need:

Shoe box

Tissue box

Paints

Paintbrush

Assorted decorative art supplies

Pencil

String

Tape

Small slips of notepaper

When the pilgrims first harvested crops in their new country, they held a big party to celebrate and give thanks. When your family sits down to a big Thanksgiving dinner, everyone's stomach is probably very grateful for all that delicious food.

But what else are people thankful for? The week before Thanksgiving, paint and decorate an empty shoe box and tissue box.

Tie one end of a string around a pencil, and tape the other end to the tissue box. Set a stack of notepaper next to the pencil. Invite family and friends to write down what they are thankful for, and put the slips inside the tissue box.

On Thanksgiving Day, take turns reading the slips aloud. The shoe box can be used to store the slips, adding a new bunch of "thankful messages" each year.

You may want to paint traditional Thanksgiving symbols on your boxes, such as turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans, and harvest foods, such as corn, pumpkin, squash, and apples.

You can print the words "Give Thanks" around the opening of the tissue box and the words "Our Thanks" on top.

1st Grade: Week 11 Highlights

Sheesh! It has been so long since last week that I think I've forgotten what all we did. I think I'll just tell my story in pictures.

Here's the aftermath of our reading time on Monday:

We worked on double digit addition, which "Rupert" picked up on quite easily.

Then there was free creative time, which he LOVES! This week he was working on his life-size ninja turtle masterpiece. He made his goal and finished it by Halloween!

"Rupert" does his copywork twice a week at his little table.

A couple more things he made during free creative time. He was SO excited about Halloween this year and was really into making decorations to put all around the house.

On Friday, we went to the pumpkin patch. I was worried that there would be nothing left since it was the DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN, but it was wonderful! Plenty of pumpkins, and no crowd...perfect!!

We carved pumpkins on Friday night. This was the first year that "Rupert" didn't mind handling the pumpkin guts at all.

My ninja turtle got to go to the Halloween party/parade at our local library, then after dinner we went to the carnival at our church, and to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He brought home more candy than I ever imagined...enough to give us all a good solid start on the road to diabetes. :-)

I'm sure this didn't help matters. We found this in a Halloween cook book at the library. It WAS good. :-)

I also joined "Rupert" in his Kung Fu class and I LOVE it! I am so excited that I get another chance to train in martial arts. Doing it with my son is so cool. It has always been a dream of mine to train with my kids. Now if we could just lure Daddy into it, what fun we would have!

Crocheted Candy Corns

I get a weekly newsletter from Lion Brand and these cute little candy corns were featured in a recent one. I could not resist! I made several of them, modifying the pattern a bit, to leave a small hole at the bottom so that the "stuffing" could be squeezed out. I bet you'll never guess what I stuffed them with. ;-)

Leprechaun Mischief!!

This morning we woke up to green toilet water, pictures turned upside down and sideways, green milk for our Lucky Charms, a chair on top of the table, and green string strung all over the kitchen. Looks like leprechauns came to our house and made mischief! :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

That's What Leprechauns Do - Math

This week we are reading That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting. I've found lots of activities to go along with this book at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and we will be putting together a lapbook this week to go with this story. Today we did a fun little math activity to go along with the leprechaun theme. We graphed the marshmallows that we found in a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. First, we lined up the marshmallows according to kind like this:

Then, in order to make the graph suitable to keep in our lapbook, we drew each kind of marshmallow at the bottom of our graph and colored the appropriate number of boxes for each kind. Last, G wrote in how many of each kind we found in the bowl.

Strawberry Soup

I got this recipe from Lee Binz at The HomeScholar. It's a great treat for Valentine's day or any day.

Ingredients:
1 bag, 20 oz. frozen strawberries
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla

Puree all ingredients in a blender, and pour into a serving bowl. It is great with plain or strawberry flavored yogurt, and you can use sugar or sugar substitute. Cover and chill 2 hours or more. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.

Valentine Cupcakes

It was G's idea to make Valentine cupcakes, I swear! I'm just going along for the ride. It seriously has nothing to do with my cake fettish. :-)

Making Valentines

G had fun making valentines for some online friends. I counted this as handwriting time since he had to write the recipient's name and his own name on each one. He has a tendency to write in very tiny letters. It took some coaching to get him to write big enough that his friends could actually read it. :-)

Christmas Project Success!

We handed out our Christmas treats yesterday and today, and were met with bright smiles, warm hearts and lots of "Merry Christmas" wishes. It was amazing how a little kindness could start conversations between strangers who never would have taken the time to chat otherwise. G was a great little helper and really got into giving away treats. We started by giving one to his kung fu instructor and the kids in his kung fu class last night. Then we stopped by a friend's house and gave them some treats. We gave one to the grocery store clerk, auntie and the people in her office, and the girls at our apartment office. Then we went to Starbucks for some hot chocolate, and as we sat there I could see the idea come into G's mind..."I'm going to hand out goodies to everyone sitting here in Starbucks", and off he went with treats in hand, passing them around the store with a "Merry Christmas" and a smile. It was so much fun! We'll definitely be doing this again next year!

Gingerbread House

We made this gingerbread house today for Uncle Erik. We got the fun of putting it together, and Erik will get the calories. Everyone is happy! :-)

Our Christmas Project is Ready!

We did the last of our baking today and made our little goody bags. We will hand these out to the people we come in contact with in our community. Just a little homemade Christmas gift to share the love of God. We have attached a Christmas Bible verse to each package to remind people of the real meaning of Christmas. We're planning to give these out next week to our librarians, the grocery store clerk, the UPS man...anyone we come in contact with as we go about our day. We are praying that God will use us to touch the world around us.

More Crafts and Baking

Today G and I made these bookmarks for the special people in his life who love to read.

We also whipped up some Christmas fudge...mmm. Now the trick is to keep my fingers out of it so we'll have some to give away. :-)

Let the Christmas Baking Begin!

We kicked off the Christmas baking season with these gingerbread cookies. G had fun drizzling icing all over them and decorating them with sprinkles.
Here's the recipe we used for these. It was fun to see how the baking soda reacted with the molasses mixture!

Today's Craft...

Handprint and footprint reindeer craft!